A
delightful day at the beach with my loving son today and as you can see it was
the highlight of my day. I don’t want to jinx it, but this is the best school break
I can remember having with him in many years and I don’t think it is just the
weather.
Unusually Warm Weather Boy
The
little ones frolic
Dragging
heavy buckets of wet sand
To
and fro, giggling and finding the spaces in between
Their
energy is pulsing with the tide
My
son stands still
Like
a giant in this strange land filled with munchkins
Or
mini-fish swimming by him
He
seems to concentrate on that one grain of sand
That
is stuck
He
feels it and knows each corner
It
feels sharp becoming smooth
A
pearl cuts its new path
As
he stares at the horizon
The
other children are playing
Not
noticing the clam-boy
Silent
looking at everything while
Seeming
to stare at nothing
The
heard passes him by
Caught
in the tag team of each other
And
what the next one is doing
Can
they join in?
They
leave to party down the beach
Somewhere
mothers call them
Siblings
throw water on each other
Screaming
delight as a preschool teacher
Blows
bubbles on her charges
All
the while, my son mimics the seagulls
Taunting
them as they fly overhead
He
toots like the ferry horn
As
it docks full and friendly
He
tunes up a key to be the train whistle
as
it chugs by the busy beach
He
is the sound of everything
That
some don’t hear
and
others turn their heads
wondering
where that extra
Call,
horn, or whistle is emanating from?
He
goes gently to the water
sticking
in his feet to freeze
April
thaw off the mountains
Turns
his toes blue
His
titers with delight
The
shock to his system
It
seems to thrill as much as horrify
He
grins wide turning his
face
firmly up to the sun
His
eyes closed, yet so wide open
To
everything
Though
nothing seems to get in
He
speaks only to me
From
movie lines or explaining seagull habits
Or
the constant weather topic
Unusual
warmth today
will
most likely break all previous records
He
dances at the thought
Then
turns his face again
Up
to soak in that statistic
Through
his skin
It
meaning nothing to most people
And
everything to him
He
travels back and forth now
A
slower version of those
Children
around him
That
have worn a path to the water’s edge
He
comes to talk to me where I sit
Soaking
in the sun
He
doesn’t want to leave me
But
the water calls
I
get up to walk to the edge with him
Kick
off my shoes
Asking
him to hold my hand
And
help me brave the cold
He
dutifully does
Helping
me step into the icy Puget Sound
I
squeal because I can’t help it
He
laughs, his eyes delighted that I’ve joined him
In
this tiny bit
The
waves wash our feet
A
holy ceremony
In
this cathedral of sun, wind, and sound
As
all around us rushes by
We
stand
I
hear nothing but him
And
he shows me everything
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